Shunt-wound self-excited alternator.



PATENTED OCT. 22. 1907.

M. G. A. LATOUR.

SHUNT WOUND SELF EXCITED, ALTERNATOR.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. 8, 190a. RENEWED FEB. 27, 1907.

2 SHEETSSHEET l.

INVENTORY Marius Bhable'sflrth LU" Latmur'.

bq w I No. 869,186. PATENTED OCT. 22. 1907. M. c. A. LATOUR. SHUNT WOUND SELF EXCITED-ALTERNATOR.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. 8, 1903. RENEWED FEB. 27, 1907.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

\A/ITNESSES: lph/EN'FUH:

' MariusChar'lesflkthuP La'ti'oun UNITED STATES PATENT. OFFICE.

MriRIUS CHARLES ARTHUR LATOUR, OF SEVRES, FRANCE, ASSIGNOR TO GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK[ smm'r-wotmn SELF-EXCITED smsnnsron.

Specification of Letters Patent.

' Patented own, 1907.

. Original application filed July 9. 1901-, Serial No. 67.665; Di vidsa m as application and 1 8. 1903. Serial r5. 168.759.

Renewed February Z7i 1 907,- Ssrial 110.359.610-

be hereinafter termed a stator) and afield structure (rotor), the latter provided with a continuous current armature winding connected to a multi-seg mental commutator.

In order that the following description and claims be well understood it is necessary to define the sense inwhich I use certain expressions.

A machine is said to be. synchronous whenever the induced magnetic field is fixed in a position with respect. to'the iron of the field or rotor and conversely a machine is stated to be asynchronous whenever the induced magnetic flux is not fixed in .position relatively to the iron of the rotor.

- In the following description .of my improved alternator I shall use the expression synchronous or synchronous machine as applying'to machines in which the degree of departure from the strictly synchronous machine, as defined in the preceding paragraph, is of the. magnitude of the slip in well-built induction machines. The slip maybe either positive or negative.

In order to emphasize certain characteristics of my improved alternator I wish to refer briefly to a motor described in German Patent No. 61951 oi 1891. This motor consisted of a polyphase field (stator) and of a direct current armature (rotor)- including commutator and brushes. The armature with commutator (rotor) -was connected indifierently, by means of a switch, either in parallel or in series with the polyphase field.

This motor was intended to run at any speed whatso-' ever and as experimentally built was connected only in series.

my improved alternator it would have been impossible to connect the stator and rotor in parallel and to run synchronously without changing the winding of the disessed the properties of the motor described in the Ger-' man Patent 61,951, that is to say, it could not have run As it will be further explained in the description of ple on which'the' construction of my improved alternator is based assuming that two-phase currents and a bi-polar machine-are being dealt with. Fig. 2 is 2. diag'rammatic representation of my shunt alternator with rotor wound for the full stator voltage and Fig. 3 is a diagram of'connection of this machine. Fig. 4 shows myshuntalternator with rotor cbnnected to a portion of the stator winding and Fig. 5 is a diagram of connection thereoi.' Figs. 6, 7 and 8 are diagrams of E. M.

Fs of assistance in explaining the operation of the al ternator.

I The fundamental principle of the excitation of my alternator may explained as follows". i

I Referring to 1,assume a stationary ring A with closed circuit winding the conductors of which are laid bare on the periphery so as to form a commutator to be placed; within a homogeneous magnetic medium such asa ring B of soft iron, from whichit is'separatedonly by a small air gap. To four brushes 0 d e f set 90 apart from each other, let two-phase currents of frequency 'w besupplied; the brushes 0 e, for instance, serving for the passage of'the current 1 sin; '7! t, and the brushes d j for the passage of-the current I cos. 2 1w t. A magnetic flux is thus obtained in the ring A and rotating therein with an angular velocity equal to w. The rotation of this flux involves losses in the iron ring due to hysteresis and Foucault currents and this rotationis further "rendered evident by the creation of a reactive M. F.

at the brush terminals 0 d e f. p I

With the ring A- stationary and neglecting, for the present the possible sparking at brushes 0 d c f, assume these four brushes to be rotated in a direction opposite to that of the rotating flux and at an angular velocity equal to w; we shall, by this means immediately in" sure the fixation of the magnetic flux with respect to the ring A. In this case there will be no losses caused by hysteresis or Foucault currents and the ring may then be either solid or laminated.

It is still more remarkable that the system shown in Fig. 1 is devoid otself-inductidn when excited by polyphase currents, owing tothe fact that the brushes.

are rotated As amatter of fact tho-resulting magnetic nomena therefore disappear and the volt'age between" the brimho's becomes equaljo the drop in the winding oi the ring. In other words, the systennal-I 7 Con rdan e of the phasesbetween the E. F. of the,

' though it enables an inducing flux to be obtained'does stator and E. M. F. between the bruslies of the'rotor A and its winding torotate with the speed of -syh-j chronisn we. have an inducing system revolving in not, take wattless currents from the source of: threephase curr'ents and, in the system under consideration;

at unity power factor. If instead of rotatingythe brushed-We leave them stationary, and cause the ring itnebi-polar inductor is excited by alternating currents t spaceatter the fashion of tlzeinducin'g field oi an alter--.

'nator'withfi xed armature.' A v i the foregoing description, reserved thequestioh-{Ofsp arking at th'e brushes lie f for later con-j 'sideration. I tis now easy to seetLat .there=cannot be any-sparking and a simple way of accounting-for this is that aseach; section ofthe ring winding is always trav- .ersed bythesanie magnetic flux i there cannot be any 1 E. F. induced-thereir'i' while it'is short-circuited under the brushes.

In discussing the question of commutation'it is not maybe used independently oi the other and furthernecessary to introduce therein the notion of thesnlf-induction ofthe sections of the Winding sho'rtcircuited underthe brushes, whencyer the resulting' magnetic .flux is fixed in position, magnitude and form relatively to the rotor, that is to say'; wheneyer-the fundamental flux is not complicated by harmonic variations.there\if-.'. Sparklcss commutation may be explai-nedfieithe r. by"

It is evident that either one of these two hypotheses more that it is unnecessary to makeuse'of botln. I prefor to explain the sparkless commutation of the rotor of m improved alternator by means of the latter assump rotor','.it' is neccssary'to displace the brushes in the-dition, that is, fixity of magnetic flux. I

' Let us I10\ place the bipolar'iield-inagnet of Fig. (which We shall refer to as the rotor) in the stator of a bipolar-p-phasc "alternating curr'en t machine and h-t us suppose that the excitation is produced withphase currents. The rotor, turning withan'ang'ular speed equal to fifi and being s'eparatelylexcited from any convenient souroc,;will induce necessarily acertain potential difference betweenthe terminals of the stator. These potential differences will haye a frequency equal to 60, and they could therefore lie-used,

ii we choose, for the excitation of the rotor itself, in other words, We could obtain, inthis manner; StBlf- BX- citation. For this purposeit is necessary at first that,-

as in a continuous current dynamo, theinduced voltage be just equal to that selected I0i..tl i e excitation, andjit isiurther required that the induced E.' M. F. be--'in phase with the E. F. maintained-betweenthbrushes by the source of separate excitation;

There is therefore a position of the-'brush es in which the volta e;

v to sparkless commutation.

' ing'currentjis fed by the brushes 0 de. f 'Inth 2'we .liaye not shown 191 separate commutator, which-would usually be employed inpractice, but wehay'e for the" Isake of simplicity ahtwiq the conductors: laid bare on the peripheryotlie rotorA- to form acorniniitator. 1fthe excitation is'takendirectlyat the terminals of the stator l(=Fig 2 )i even ior the low voltageoi 110' or 220 irolts, a'windingbtfinewire and of a great number of turns pefcomrn'iitator segment is required. Thein- .fluenc'e of. the harmonic magnetic fljuires on the com .85

- mutation would lthen. become {cry-important and-tury-fi iermore the windingwould' be impracticaljl'e.

The excitation can however bermade. at; a' lower voltage either by connecting the brushes of the'rotor'to i points nearerneutralip'oint of the stator as shownin Fig. 5 that is, by using fewerturns only of the'stator. .winding orby means of a transformer forlowering the p Residual magnetism sii'ific'es'fgenral-ly tor. starting and the-alternator: of E operates asa thre phase al ternati'ng current generator withiits rotoreiicitedjbyah ternating currents. i

When the statorgives out current, the asesofthe' M. Fsat theterminals of thestatorare-lnodified F time and iorfthe 'oflma'intaining' the rotation of. the magnetic 'field flux synchronous 'with respect to the rection ofthe movement-of rotor.

When the brushes are notjsufli'cienfly displaced to obtain synchronous rotation of the magnetic ,fiuir relatively to the rotor the ffreduencyof the stator currents- :d'ecreaseoin a definite mannerland themagnetic' flux -to zero flux-variations in the sections of the rotor wind- I .i'ng short-circuited hy-the brushes andfcorisequently The graphical representation of operation ot my iinproved alternator maybeoftint'erest'. .Ifi-Figlqfi; O,- S represents the ampere turns of the armature; and 0', the ampere turns" ofthe .field; the resultantampere turns are consequently indicated by 0' op, 90" degreesbehiridf). F, represents the electrom'otive force F induced in the armature by the'resul tan't fiux'z- The; Z

.angle SO D indicated by 4 consequently represents the angleof Now, if the alig'ularspeedf'oithe field body is represented by V and the frequency of the curcurrents, the angle'betweenit he field terminals arid the I can be induced in the field winding. I .As has been heretofore explained, the field circuit must consequently be non-inductive and the electromotive force impressed .upon the commutator "brushes is consequently. in

1 line 0 d in phase therewith. In other words, any va- -oi'the brushes, forwhich the speed 'of'the rotor body --is equal to the. frequency .of the armature currents,

accuse I rents induced in the'armature by N, when equals N the field structure is rotatingin synchronism with the rotating flux and consequently no electromotive force phasewith the field current, that is, in phase with the linev R, and may be represented'by the line 0 d in phase with 0 R and in opposition to 0 e, which rep resents the ohmic dropin the field winding. The phase angle between the electromotive forces impressed upon the armature terminals and-commutator brushes, corresponds to the physical angle between the armature terminals and the brush position, that is, in order to I secure an adjustmentof the'brushes such that the speed of the field body equals the frequency of-the' armature commutator brushes which is represented by G. ea 1n Fi gi 2, mustbeequajl to the angle D OH in Fig. 6

,It is evident that any variation in the angle SO D or in the length of the line 0 Swill produce variation in position of the Jim 0 R', a nd consequently of the 'riation 'in the power factor-or magnitude of the arm ture' current alters the position at which the brushes" must be set in order to attain the relation'N=V. Klan-- sequen'tl'y if the brushes-are set to give this relationfor a given load and power factor, and if the loadgor power factor varies, the frequency of the armature currents will no longer be equal to the speed'of th'e'field'body Or, .in other words, the brushes areincorrcjctlyset to produce the relation N.==V.f the other. hand, ii the orushesareproperly set to produce this relation and are thcn' shiited,the; equality between'N and V willbe destroyed: I I I Figs. 7 and B ShOW graphically the conditions when the brushes are incorrectly placed. If N is greateror less than V the field structure is slipping withreference to the revolving flint and thisslipmay be positive or negativeaccording as the rotor speed is greater or less than the frequency of 'the armature current; Fig. 7

shows the brushes shifted so as'to make an angle O d I smallerthan the angle I) 0111. The line 0 f de grees ahead of the line O-F represents the electromotive-iorce induced in the-field winding due tothe slip,

and th e line 0 d is equaland opposite'to the line 0 'g, which represents theresultant of'thc lineO-f and the .line 0 c. Fig. 8 represents the condition when the brushes are shifted in the opposite direction so as to increasc'the angle I) 0 d. ln this case the lino -O f'is reversed'in direction, but as before, the-line O-d'is equal and opposite to the resultant of O f and of c. From'these diagrams it is consequently evident that for every load and power factor there is one position while forany other position of the brushes for that load and power factor this equality would be destroyed. -In the above discussion it has been assumedthat the tlv. Furthermore, a machine built in conformity armature and field are'similarly connected, that is, in delta or in Y. If they are not similarly connected, it

terminals and commutator brushes correspond directly to'the actual physical angle between the armature terminals and the brush position," but on the contrary allowance must be made for the difference in phase due' to the difference in connection; that is, if the armature and field are coiinect'ed one in Y and the other in delta;

' as shown in Fig. 2, the angle C 0 a no longer corresponds directly to the angle D O inljig. 6, but the necessary correction must be made for theldifference in-phase producediby the changefrom todelta.

A shunt wound alternating current generator can of course work as a motor; In thislcaseit isnecessary, with increase infthload, todisplace the brushes in' is of course'no longer true that'thephase angle between the electromotive-force impressed upon'the armature the direction oppositefic th'at'of the movement of -the rotor, If this is not done; the speed ofthe'rot or dc creases.- It,-is iadvantageous to operate my improved I shunt wound' alternators with the magnetic flux and" the rotor in absolute synchronism whenthe machine is carrying full load, but I wish to claim, not only those machines which run at absolutelysynchronous speed.

as; above defined, but also those machines which run at nearly synchronous speeds, the degree. of departure from synchronous speed being oitlie-order of the slip.

to be un'derstood thatt'he sli'p may be positive or riegzi;

with the. present description cannot run at any and all spe'edsbut must operate :at or very near the synchro- I nousspeed-as above" defined;

WhatI claimas newa'rid desire'to secureby'Le ttors Pate'nt of the United States is: 1. Ir co'rnblnatlon, a'n alternating-current *generator comprising relativelyrotatable members one 'of which. is mechanlca'lly-drrveu and each of 'whiclr is provided with a ,1 dish-muted winding, :1. commutatonfor one of said wind lngs,a bru'shes bearing on said commutator,'polypliusc eoir 'nectlons from said b l'ushesjtc the other winding whereby 2; A selI-excltlng alternating-current generator com p1'lsing ,tw o relatively rotatable members one. of. which ls I inwell'designedinduction machines. fltis', of course, r

"the two winnings are connee teq ln parallel..und a. load- I i I circuit supplied with current-from said generator.

lugs, brushes bearing on saldcommutator, and polyphase shunt connections betwensald b rushesarid the other wln'dlng whereby arotary'mngnetic' fielduls produced in said generator and the generator thus 'excites itself iu'de pendently of any c-vxternal source. "l 3. In combination, "an alternating-current generator comprising relatively.rotatable members, one of which 1., mec hanicallydriven and each of which is provided with a; distributed winding, polyphase shunt connections joining together said 'windings to pvovlddpaths for currents wherebj'the generator becomessclf-excitlng, and a load circuit supplied'with current fi'om said generator? i 'In witness whereof I haveherennto set my hand this 20th day'el' July, 1903. I

'MAR'IUS CllARLE S ARTHUR fns'rounf Witnesses 'A; S.'(}ARFIELD, I

Ace-estrus E. INGRAM. 

